Color Me Mine*
Thursday, July 28th, 2005
I was in Grade 3 when I decided I wanted to be a painter. Never mind the fact that the only way I could draw was with the help of my heavy duty carbon paper. Nevertheless, that did not hamper my enthusiasm and creativity. And on inspired days, I would use my freehand and my buddy paintbrush and watercolor. I would show my drawing to my Mom and she’d beam no matter how silly it looked. Aaahhh, Mothers. Biased.
One day, in class, our teacher, obviously with nothing to do, asked us to draw just anything. I was exited; there was nothing I liked more. So there I was, with my creative juices flowing, decided to draw a flower. (o dava, creative talaga J) I was coloring away, putting different colors on each petal, when my teacher went to my side and commented “Ano ba yang drawing mo, Walang bulaklak na iba-iba ang kulay ng petals.” She made me do it again. This time she told me to draw a normal flower. I was downhearted.
My painter fantasy was squashed like a bug. I never got my stroke back since then.
Now imagine my dilemma when Nina first brought me to Color Me Mine*. (naks, ang haba ng intro!) It’s therapeutic, she says. But I was more stressed out in figuring the right colors and design to put in my chosen ceramic (I chose a photo frame, I stenciled in moon and stars. Basta, it came out different from the way I envisioned it. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t satisfied with it). We came back the following week with Eteru in tow. We both picked a lion mug to paint. And so I picked the appropriate colors from the yellow, orange and brown family, while Teru, feeling a bit more adventurous, picked blue, aside from the usual colors. I was already painting me lion when she asked:
“Does the color of my lion have to be the traditional yellow and orange?”
I replied “Do whatever you want with it Teru, it’s your lion”.
Hence, she colored her lion mug blue. Never mind that it looked like Rafiki (the monkey from the Lion King) instead of Simba.
And it got me thinking. I just realized that I was never that daring when it comes to anything. I’m afraid to be taken out of my comfort zone. Maybe because of the fact that the last time I was bold enough to jump and threw all caution out the window, I was left broken (and I’m not talking about my flower painting incident).
And here I was. Stuck to where I am.
Alone and afraid.
But now I’m ready to face the world.
Try new things.
Experience new adventures.
Veer away from convention.
And all it took was Eteru’s blue lion.
Next time,
I’m gonna color me lion, purple.
Let’s take it one step at a time, oki? J
*Color Me Mine provides hours of fun for those who have a flair for painting things made out of pottery. Hundreds of items are available for painting. You pay an affordable hourly fee to go into the store and paint things. Finally when you are finished, the shop places your project in a kiln for permanent use. You then come back and pick the item up later and have a beautiful gift for someone you love or to treat yourself. They have branches in ATC and Greenbelt 3.
